Birthright
He must still have owned the silver Rolls –
a Sedanca de Ville, all paid for, parked
and shining outside 51 Great Cumberland Place.
Vintage, mint, red leather upholstery,
a two-seater joy-to-handle motor
that made arriving even better than the journey,
eased entry to that invisible club
where she’d always been a member.
After several broken engagements and once, invitations;
after four years of waiting for his divorce;
after the rabbi’s refusal to marry them in synagogue;
she pledged herself to this magic Yiddish violinist.
Too short, too old and new earned money
but at last some sort of equal to her giant of a father,
at last the man to be trusted with words like love.
Probably it was on honeymoon in Venice
between the Grand Hotel’s fine linen sheets
that he relaxed his grip on the future.
Perhaps it happened even before they left
during their first night married in the flat
when he understood he’d give her everything,
even the children he’d passionately, never wanted.
Page(s) 59
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